Wednesday, June 15, 2016

GEOCACHING POTPOURRI--

Log House on a Rock: This delightful exercise in minimalist living has been around far longer than it's counterparts now part of trendy architecture. This sample is buried deep in Amish country near Trail, OH and we recently passed it in our caching travels.

Dundee Falls: This is the larger of two waterfalls in Tuscarawas County that are undeveloped but are under the protection of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. We discovered them because an Earthcache (geocache) has been created featuring their geology. My partner, Sue, standing in the lower right background (above) adds perspective to the view.

We estimated this fall to be a about 30 feet tall while the very picturesque falls (below) were likely between 15 and 20 feet high. Both are located on Dundee Wilmot Rd. NE, about 1/2 mile NW of Kohr Rd. Each has a gravel parking area with ODNR signs visible. There are well-worn trails to both falls but no directional signs.

Nature Being Natural: An amusing sight during our day was this pair of cicadas (below) evidently discussing what comes naturally while I noticed the ant passing without comment. They were found on the edge of a steel guardrail near where a geocache was located on our romp through Amish country.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

The view was enchanting with the forest resplendent in its freshly arrived Spring finery. And, this first stop on the day's caching route revealed this view of Mohican I had never seen before.

Cross the covered bridge deep in the park over the Clear Fork branch of the Mohican River and corkscrew your way up the park road as if you intend to leave the park's north exit. Up top you will see a turn to the left which heads to that exit. Continue straight ahead there as if you are headed for the primitive/group camping area but, immediately branch to the right on a paved driveway leading to a small parking area.

Leave your vehicle and prepare for a short, gently sloped walk through woods which will end in about 200 yards while presenting you this spectacular view. The view here is generally east and I believe the visible valley in the distance may lead toward the camping area at the intersection of SRs 97 and 3 south of Loudonville.

Our caching target that day was to Sue's right about 50 yards then down the quite steep hill another 100 feet or so where we found an ammo can hiding behind a decaying log. That was the cache container holding a log we signed which proves our attendance should the cache owner ever bother to check.

That's the activity of geocaching in a nutshell. Use the latitude/longitude coordinates and your GPS to find these hides of which there are nearly 3 million world-wide and multiple 10s of thousands in Ohio alone.

A huge benefit of this activity is enjoying the locations it often takes us--like that jewel pictured above. I've visited the Mohican State Park/Forest countless times but in over 75 years of enjoying life I never previously enjoyed this view.

Actually our caching day of 15 finds included two dandys. The second was in the photo below; a wood carving done in a single piece of wood and entitled "The Ole Fishing Hole". It is a rendition of Thomas Kinkade's work and involved his daughter dressed up as Tom Sawyer.

Done by artist Paul Weaver, it is breath-taking in its detail and is displayed at Lehman's Hardware in Kidron, OH with numerous other samples of his exquisite creations. We wound up our caching that day in nearby Mt. Hope and made Lehman's our usual "must visit". In fact Lehman's is a delightful destination for a visit in its own right, and that day put a fitting punctuation to our day's caching outing.